A Capitol Hill hearing that was supposed to be about religious freedom and a mandate that health insurers cover contraception in the United States began as an argument about whether Democrats could add a woman to the all-male panel.

“Where are the women?” the minority Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., asked early in the hearing.

She criticized the Republican committee chairman, Rep. Darrel Issa, for wanting to “roll back the fundamental rights of women to a time when the government thought what happens in the bedroom is their business.”

“We will not be forced back to that primitive era,” she said.

Issa bristled at the charge and said Democrats could not add their witness because she was not a member of the clergy, but a student at Georgetown. He also faulted Democrats for not submitting the name of the witness, Sandra Fluke, in time.

Fluke would have talked about a classmate who lost an ovary because of a syndrome that causes ovarian cysts. Georgetown, which is affiliated with the Catholic Church, does not insure birth control, which is also used to treat the syndrome.

Issa said the hearing is meant to be more broadly about religious freedom and not specifically about the contraception mandate in the Health Reform law.

Another case of rich white Republican men trying to tell women what they should do with their bodies. The right wing evangelicals are loving this. It should be noted that House Democrats walked out of the hearing in protest of no women being on the panel. Um, I can’t recall a guy ever giving birth to a baby? So, what gives a man the right to hold a hearing on birth control with no women on the panel?

If men could get pregnant, there would be ’10 minute drive-thru clinics’ and super-duper abortion pills available at evey convenience store, so guys like Issa could reverse the process pronto, and be back out on the golf course by noon!